Bloody Fangs
Alignment: Any non-good Symbol: A pale, curved fang tipped in a droplet of blood; the fang is cracked from its tip to its base Discipline: Primal Fury Oath: The oaths sworn by the Bloody Fangs are given to elementals, fey, spirits, or even more alien incarnations of nature. Kneeling in submission before an incarnation of the natural world, the Fang swears his vow and cuts his palms with a wooden blade, leaving behind twin scars that throb angrily in the presence of metal. “With the earth and sky as my witness, hear my vow: I will serve the untainted wilds and the unspoiled lands, protecting them from the greed of civilization with axe and fang. Where mortal avarice threatens the harmony of nature, I will strike without pity. Where mortal ignorance wracks the land with pain and poison, I will kill without question, and if my heart proves faithless, may I be rejected by stone, scorned by the sky, and driven into the stink and shadows of the cities until my last choked breath of poisoned air.” Allegiance Benefit: Fangs ignore damage reduction possessed by aberrations, constructs, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, oozes, and outsiders (except outsiders with the elemental subtype) and causes regeneration to cease functioning for those creatures if they have that ability. A Fang that violates his oath (see above) loses his ability to ignore damage reduction and regeneration until he atones either through the sacrifice of a sapient being at the roots of a tree or by flaying himself with thorny vines while meditating on the conflict between civilization and nature (a painful and gory process that inflicts 1d4 points of Constitution damagethat the Fang must permit to heal naturally before they are considered to have properly atoned). Description: The Bloody Fang is a martial tradition born in fury, and they take that fury with them everywhere they go. Long ago, in a time lost to history, the founder of the Bloody Fang was given a charge to watch over a stretch of pristine wildland. Love and duty, however, drew him away from his sacred task, and the founder asked a nearby village to tend to his woodland while he journeyed far away. For ten years he was gone, fulfilling his obligation to another, only to return to a smoking ruin that had been converted to tanning pits and butcheries for nearby ranchers. The founder decimated the village and all those who dwelled within it, consecrating his new purpose in slaughter. Today, the Bloody Fang recruits members who have vendettas against ‘civilized’ races. They take the protection of nature as their goal, but to ‘protect’ the wild lands, the Bloody Fang wages war upon cities, towns, and other urban centers, frightening settlers away with blood and fire. When that doesn’t work, their tactics escalate more often than not, and if left unchecked the Bloody Fang is not afraid to engage in slaughter on a staggering scale. Their attacks bear the gruesome trademark of dragging their victims away to be fed to the Bloody Fang’s beasts, or buried beneath the roots of new saplings and gardens. Even when such signs are not present, the Bloody Fang’s victims suffer improbably violent wounds; the oath that binds them to the order gives the Fangs a supernatural sense of their victims’ weaknesses, enabling stunning acts of violence and cruelty. While not all members of the Bloody Fang are so eager to murder, many are, and it colors their sacred rites and attitudes. The Bloody Fang sees itself as being at war with the world, and it will do almost anything to ‘win’ that war. The Bloody Fang bows before many and varied spirits of nature, whom they venerate as being ‘higher’ than mortal beings. They serve the interests of elementals and fey, who utilize the more weak- willed Fangs as hatchet-men and thugs. Others with a more refined touch form alliances with cells of Fangs to achieve long-term personal goals. The Bloody Fang usually expects payment in kind, giving them a wide stable of supernatural allies to support their shock troops when laying siege to frontier towns and destabilizing urban centers. The sacrifice of sapient beings to these spirits and fey is fairly common, as well as the worship of dark gods and even, sometimes, demon princes and elemental lords, drawn to the thirst for vengeance that hovers around the Fang like a miasma. Common Tasks: The Bloody Fang’s leadership is decentralized but strong; individual cells or members answer to a local leader who directs their activities, sending them to acquire resources or destroy targets of value. A member of the Bloody Fang may be asked to assassinate an important leader, burn down a city block, attack a caravan carrying vital goods and medicine, steal magical weapons, or much more. Universally, the Bloody Fang takes time from its primary mission to massacre aberrations, constructs, and other affronts to nature; upon hearing of such a being in its area, a cell will drop all other activities and focus on slaying it as swiftly as possible. Available Services: The Bloody Fang maintains relationships with chaotic and evil druids, through which they exchange services and magical items. Their ongoing service to elementals and fey also means that for difficult tasks a Fang may be able to call upon supernatural aid, or barter favors and secrets from these beings. Aside from those considerations, it is up to individual cells to stockpile weapons, supplies, and spells on their own initiative, and the resources available to a given member greatly depend on what their cell can muster.